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CEREMONIES 



AT THE 



LAYING OF THE CORNER STONE 



OF THE 



Arts and Sciences College Building 



OF 



TULANE UNIVERSITY, 



NEW ORLEANS. | ^p,^ ^^ ^g^^ ' 






Saturday, January 27, 1894. 



NEW OKLEANS: 
L. GRAHAM Sc SON, LTD., 44-46 BARONNE 
1894. 



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CEREMONIES 



A large concourse of persons assembled on Saturday afternoon, 
January 27, upon the occasion of the laying of the corner stone of 
the building for the College of Arts and Sciences, the largest of the 
group of buildings now in process of erection and the central build- 
ing for the present uses of the University. 

The grounds purchased by the administrators of the Tulane Edu- 
cational Fund as the new site of the University and College are 
extensive and admirably adapted for the purpose, having 582 feet 
front on St. Charles avenue, facing Audubon Park, and extending 
over 12,000 feet toward the rear of the city. A portion of this tract, 
about 1600 feet in depth, reaching from St. Charles avenue to Long 
street, has been set aside for College and University purposes. 

The Arts and Sciences College Building, the Physical Laboratory, 
the Chemical Laboratory, resembling in appearance and dimensions 
the Physical Laboratory, the several Workshops and Mechanical and 
Electrical Laboratories are now in process of construction. 

A Gymnasium is also to be built, and in the rear of this build- 
ing suitable grounds will be improved for athletic purposes. 

The building for the College of the Arts and Sciences is the 
largest of the collection. It has a frontage of 250 feet 8 inches, a 
depth of 69 feet 6 inches, with basement, two stories and attic, a 
height of about 70 feet from the ground. It faces St. Charles 
avenue, being set back about 200 feet from the line of the street. 
This building is of Bedford stone. All details in the plans of the 
several buildings have been carefully considered. 

This change of location marks an era in the history of Tulane 
University. The occasion of laying the corner stone brought together 
an assembly of representative men and women distinguished in 

[5] 



letters, science and the learned professions, municipal and State 
officials, and many others interested in the growth and prosperity of 
educational institutions. 

The Board of Administrators of the Tulane Educational Fund 
were present, with the Faculties and officers of the several depart- 
ments of the University, the Society of Alumni and the body of 
students with^ their class flags and colors. 



President of the University, called the meeting to order and announced 
the exercises, as follows : 

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN : 

We are about to lay the corner stone of Tulane University. 
I hope it may be the corner stone of education in Louisiana. We 
will open the ceremonies by involving the Divine blessing. I now 
take pleasure in introducing to you the 

REV. B. M. PALMER, D.D., 

Who will lead in prayer. 

Dr. Palmer offered the following prayer: 

Almighty God, we adore thee; the king eternal, immortal, in- 
visible ; the only wise God, to whom we ascribe honor and glory 
forever and ever. It has pleased thee to fashion man after thine own 
image — endowing him with lofty attributes, that he may have his por- 
tion and joy in thee. 

We especially offer thee the homage of our grateful praise this 
day, on which we are brought so near the consummation of long- 
cherished hopes. Help us now by thy grace to lay the corner-stone 
of this building in firm reliance upon that providence which has guided 
us thus far in the administration of a solemn trust; and with fer- 
vent prayer that this university may, through all time, be a fountain 
of blessing to this commonwealth and to the world. 

We thank thee for the generous benevolence which inspired the 
large gifts by which this institution has been first endowed and after- 
ward enlarged in its several departments of instruction. Cause the 

[6] 



memories of these donors to be gratefully preserved among the gen- 
erations that shall come after us. And may it please thee to raise 
up other benefactors, who shall consecrate their wealth in opening 
wider still the fountains of knowledge which shall here send forth 
healing streams to make this, our land, a praise and a joy in all 
the earth. 

To this end we pray that all who are engaged in its work of 
instruction, and all who are called to be their auxiliaries in every 
sphere of counsel and labor, may be men who reverence thy holy 
name, who abide by the teachings of thine inspired word ; men of 
faith and pious zeal, who feel their responsibility to thee, and who 
seek thy guidance and favor in all they undertake. 

And now to thee, the Lord our shield, the high and lofty one 
that inhabiteth eternity, and to thy watchful care, we commit these 
interests so dear to our hearts. Through faith alone in thee we lay 
the corner stone on which this university shall ever rest, praying that 
grace, mercy and peace, as a triune benediction; may shine upon 
its headstone as a crown of glory, while time shall last. And to 
thy name, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, be the praise forever and 
ever. 

President Johnston then introduced the 

REV. BEVERLEY WARNER, D. D., 

Rector of Trinity Church, New Orleans, who delivered the following 
address : 

MANHOOD THE CORNER STONE OF 
CIWILIZATION. 

MR. PRESIDENT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: 

The laying of the corner stone of an institution of this sort, the 
marking of a certain stage of progress in its work, is of the great- 
est importance and the greatest interest, not only in the history of 
the University itself, but also to the city, the State, even to the 
whole nation. The removal from an old place to a new and the 
laying of a corner stone that marks such a removal is one of those 



noteworthy events deserving to be made much of, as in a way you 
are making much of the present occasion. It marks an advance in 
the life of the University ; an advance which is of the nature, not 
of a monument by the wayside, but of a stepping-stone across the 
rills of time into larger fields. As the corner stone is the meeting 
point between the foundation laid low in the obscure trenches and 
those noble walls and towers which are soon to be raised on 
that foundation squared and completed by the corner stone itself, 
so is the manhood of this generation related to the past and the 
future. 

As we thus take public and formal note of the " old order chang- 
ing, yielding place to the new," we are called upon to have in mind 
a grateful sense of what is due to the benefactor and benefactors 
who made this change of place, with its opportunities of larger work, 
possible, by past donations to this University. 

Looking forth upon this audience, and reviewing silently the his- 
tory of this institution, so intimately connected with the lives of 
many here present, and many who having done their part in 
their time have gone to their reward, I can not refrain from calling 
attention to the fact that this University is the result of an ac- 
cepted and realized stewardship of wealth in the past of those who 
were parts of the community life themselves. The names of Tulane, 
Newcomb and Richardson are to us a proud and grateful memory, 
not only because they have accomplished certain splendid practical 
results in these notable buildings that bear their names, but because 
in giving you their loving thoughts in the form of such edifices as 
mark the growing and expanding life of the University they are 
but rendering back what they have first received from the commu- 
nity and from its life. It is a happy presage for the future that 
those who are now receiving the life and influence and inspiration of 
Tulane, will in the time to come give back to it in some shape, of what 
they have received. For there are among your instructors those who 
have recived a good part of their intellectual equipment at these altars of 
learning, and now in turn are ministering it to others. It is a matter 
for congratulation that the names of some of those who are the foun- 
dation and pillars of this University are well and honorably known, 
not only within but beyond your borders. This comes back a bene- 

[8] 



faction to you also, because it brings not only individual reputation, 
which is in itself a small enough thing, but it sends out the light 
and the truth through the length and breadth of the land, and even 
to within the walls of the ancient universities beyond the sea, and 
it marks the fact that Tulane University is not a local or a sec- 
tional institution, but ranks, in the men who are the only makers 
of universities, as a contributor to that sum of knowledge and en- 
lightenment which makes the whole world a better and a brighter 
world. 

One fact of great importance comes strongly home to us, as 
this new era opens above this new corner stone. The laying of a 
corner stone in this, which is often and most truly called an age 
of peculiar transition, is the outward and visible pledge that while 
old things are passing away and all things becoming new (in form, 
at least), some things are settled beyond fear of disturbance. Old 
truths and forms of truth are subjects of question and query and 
doubt. We are prone, in these last days of the nineteenth century, 
perhaps too prone, to cast off old forms because they are old, and 
to peer too curiously into the new because it is new. Such a period 
as this, when daily, venerable walls of partition are being battered 
down ; when men stand defiant before the holy of holies in religion, 
in science, in life, and, with daring hand, seek to draw back that 
veil which God himself has dropped between human eyes and divine 
mysteries — such an age needs the reminder for which this corner 
stone stands, that no man lives by doubt alone. Doubt is a 
quickening tonic, but it is not the bread of life. The age of transi- 
tion can not last, even as the disorder and confusion about this 
spot to-day, made necessary by the demands of a larger life 
for this University, can not always exist. The University is pass- 
ing from its old form and shell, which was sufficient for its childhood, 
into a new and beauteous framework more suited to its expanding 
work. So this corner stone, the point of contact and departure 
between the old and the new, marks the truth for humanity, in this 
age of trial and troubled discipline, intellectual and religious, that 
we are passing into a state which will be a settled state. I take 
it to be the real and high use of this University life, not simply 
to hand over formulas of thought to students with their diplomas, 

[9] 



but to so inspire the inner life of tliose wlio drink at the 
founts of learning here as that they shall have convictions of 
truth, and not merely opinions about truth. The corps of instruc- 
tors and professors are here not to tell men what to think and 
to believe, but to teach them how to think for themselves on 
right lines. 

There are standards in the purely intellectual life, as truly as 
there are canons in the purely artistic life. We are as able to 
measure the just accomplishment of the truth-seeker in any chair of 
this University as that of any follower of the art of Angelo or 
Beethoven — both truth-seekers after their kind. All truth may be 
gauged and judged by standards. The University is about its true 
work in helping men to form the true standard. 

As this corner stone is laid to-day upon these broad and deep 
foundations, we recall the past years as years of struggle and trial, 
but we look forward to the years to come as fruitful years of 
accomplishment. The inspiration of this scene to-day should be a 
sign pledge of many, many days to come of inspiration in the lives 
of all, teachers and students, who are destined to inhabit the walls 
not yet builded. 

This corner stone stands in the same relation to the whole build- 
ing, completed foundation and unfinished walls, as the manhood of 
this generation, this century, to that of the past and of the future. 
We are builded upon the past, we are pledged to the future. If 
men have laid wisely in other centuries, we are the more bound to 
build wisely for the present and the future. We stand here to-day 
the heirs of all the ages, but only so by right, as we hold the 
heritage in trust, to make the coming years debtors to what shall 
be finely and splendidly wrought in this our day. Here we stand, 
the manhood of this nineteenth century, on the corner-stone of the 
best civilization of the world, taking out of the past all good, true 
and helpful things, but not halting there. Looking forward and 
upward, even as these workmen will select from the stones about 
these foundations in order to lay course upon course into a fair 
and splendid edifice, so must we select from the great mass of 
opinions, theories, convictions, that are crowding about us in these 

[10] 



latter days, to build a temple of manhood in which shall be found 
only those things which are honest and of good report. 

One thought occurs to me in conclusion. The practical founder 
of the new life of this University lived for a good part of his life 
in my own old University town of Princeton, where he drew some 
of that inspiration, doubtless, which has crystallized into this promise 
of a larger life for the far South. It is on such corner-stones of 
progress that the best civilization of the North and the South are 
to build up a nation completely and literally united in aim and 
sentiment. Even religion has failed in some conspicuous instances 
to bring together the one time warring and contending factions, and 
in the Church are still existent, in form, at least, remnants of the 
old dissensions and divisions. But here from the corner-stone of an 
institution of learning, made possible by one who was of the North 
and of the South, may we not all see splendid prophecies of the 
future? and as we are here assembled from all quarters of this 
once divided people, may we not, with entire reverence and in joyous 
hope, paraphrase the Psalmist, and declare that on such a corner 
stone as this, dedicated to the larger life of manhood, the North and 
the South meet together, and the Lord is the maker of them all? 

President Johnston then introduced the 

HON. Charles E. Fenner, 

President of the Board of Administrators of Tulane University, who 
said : 

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: 

Whoever has wandered with sympathetic soul amidst the 
academic shades, the pillared aisles, the groined arches, the architec- 
tural splendors or dignities of some ancient seat of learning, like Ox- 
ford or Cambridge, in old England, or like the more modern, yet to 
us venerable, universities of our own land, such as Harvard and Yale 
and the University of Virginia, must recall his profound sense of the 
solemn yet exhilarating impressiveness of such surroundings and of 
the wealth of inspiring. associations which they awaken. 
[II] 



Within those sacred precincts professors famous for learning 
in the arts and sciences have burned the midnight oil and ex- 
pended their lives in the noble task of combating ignorance, spread- 
ing the light of knowledge, equipping the minds of their youthful 
countrymen with the powers and resources of education and train- 
ing their faculties to higher fitness in all the fields of thought and 
action. 

Thither thronged generation after generation of aspiring youth, 
the "roses and expectancies of the fair state," bringing with them 
their ingenuous impulses, their bright hopes, their eager ambitions, to 
engage in the struggles and contests of college life, to enrich their 
minds with precious stores of knowledge, and by the gymnastics of 
earnest thought and study to train themselves for better competition 
in the race of after life. The roster which the alma mater keeps of 
her children, who have come and gone, blazes with names the men- 
tion of which fills her heart with ineffable pride. Like the Roman 
mother she points to these and proudly says: 'Here are my jewels.' 
Here she shows the name of some great teacher who has nobly prop- 
agated her own work of education; here that of some renowned 
statesman, who guides the destinies of the nation ; here that of some 
orator, whose eloquence thrills the world ; here that of some histo- 
rian, who has made the past to live again upon his storied page ; 
here that of some great judge, who has become an oracle of justice ; 
here that of some inspired preacher, who has reformed the lives and 
saved the souls of sinners; here that of some wise physician, who 
has relieved the sufferings and prolonged the lives of thousands ; 
here that of some profound philosopher, who has explored the mys- 
teries of human faculties and attributes and relations; here that of 
some discoverer, who has wrung new secrets from reluctant nature ; 
here that of some inventor, whose skill has made new combinations 
in mechanical forces into machines which serve the needs and supply 
the wants of man, maximizing production, minimizing labor, increas- 
ing the comforts of life and adding enormously to the wealth of the 
world ; here that of some immortal poet, whose song has captivated 
the human heart, and, soaring heavenward, has borne upon its wings 
to higher and purer spheres the souls of men. 

[12] 



Under the shelter of her protecting arms and nurtured at her 
affluent breast, these choice spirits gained their growth and garnered 
up the strength and sl<ili which made them emissaries of light and 
knowledge, and flooded the world with benefits and blessings. The 
University, as the capstone of the educational arch, has been the 
most potent factor in human progress in the development of civili- 
zation, in the amelioration of human conditions, in the accumulation 
of wealth, and in the establishment of the brotherhood of man on 
the basis of wisely guarded and enlightened liberty, equality and 
fraternity. 

The glories which memory gathers about the shrines of ancient 
universities imagination must foreshadow as the coming inheritance 
of the young and vigorous giant, which answers to the name of 
Tulane University of Louisiana. 

We are here to-day to celebrate the foundation of a fitting and 
permanent home for her. In my mind's eye I see noble structures 
rise from these broken walls into the proportions of their completed 
beauty ; I see these barren grounds clothed with verdure and gar- 
landed with flowers, and sheltered by ^widespread trees, renewing the 
groves of Academus; I hear the footsteps of throngs of students 
hurrying to and fro on their scholastic duties, and the voices of 
learned teachers expounding the farthest reaches of art and science. 
I mark the recurring processions of her titled graduates, flushed with 
their collegiate successes and triumphs, passing from her portals to 
take their places in the ranks of those who fight the battle of life, 
confident in the strength which she has bestowed, to win honor and 
renown for her and for themselves. I follow them in their varied 
careers, and while some may faint and fall, many stoutly forge 
their way to the front and bear the banner of Tulane into the 
thickest of the fray, where bravest deeds are done and worthiest 
honors won. 

And now, fellow-administrators, learned professors, students 
friends and patrons of learning, while I lay the corner-stone of this 
College of Arts and Sciences, beneath this bright sky and with the 
spirit of Paul Tulane looking down upon us, join with me in con- 
fident auguries of the brilliant future awaiting Tulane University, 

[13] 



and in an earnest invocation to the throne of grace that her worl< 
may be a great and good work, done well and wisely, and redound- 
ing to the benefit of humanity and to the glory of Him from whom 
all glories come. 



After the corner-stone had been laid in its place, President John- 
ston stated that 

MRS. MARY ASHLEY TOWNSEND 

Had been requested by the Board of Administrators to write a poem 
for the occasion, and that she had kindly consented to do so. The 
poem was then read by Professor Dillard, as follows : 



THE CORNER STON E. 

With breathing bugle come, and with bassoon ; 
With 'cello answering to the supple wrist — 
And resined bow of violist: — 
Come with whispering flutes in tune; 

Sound, sound the animating drum ; 

Be horn nor hautboy longer dumb ; 

Let swooning veins of violins awake 

And vivified vibrate 

With soul-songs inarticulate, 

All hallowed for this sweet day's sweet sake! 
Sing to the silences until they sing — 
Give music wing 
Until her fetterless flight 
Upon the very skies, in melody, shall write 
The infinite meaning of this hour's delight. 
And echo, gathering up the harmonies. 
Shall send them drifting down the centuries ! 

[141 



II. 

A princess is in fairy story sung, 
Who, beautifully young, 

Sleeps on for years and years, 
Untouched by pain or tears, 
Or blight of envious tongue ; 
While into forests grow the roses fair. 

And deep and deeper grows the silence there. 
And loneliness is everywhere. 
And with her lies the bitter stress 
Of idleness and uselessness, 
And close, and ever closer press 
Indifference and forgetfulness ! 

Then comes the fair prince to dismiss 
All of this 
With a kiss! 
Beneath the magic contact flies 
The spell of slumber from her eyes; 
To life and beauty. 
To life and duty. 
Behold her rise ! 



The eager builders sought the corner stone, 
Gray, primal jewel for the temple's zone — 
Deep bosomed in the mysteries 
Of earth's unwritten histories, 
Far from light 
Of day or night 
The quarry kept its own from human sight ; 
On its dim, time-scriptured pages 
Only peered the passing ages. 
Rose and fell the federations, 
Came and went the noise of nations ; 
Born and buried, generations 
Crossed the whirling world and made no sign. 
And in its bed the stone still lay supine. 



[15] 



Thus, ever, be it star or stone, 

The unneeded is unknown ; 
But never, never earth forsakes her own : 

Ever by her silent gate 

The purpose and the power wait 

Their given mission to fulfil : 
Be it to paint a tilting daffodil, 

Be it a world to subjugate. 
Or to the poetry of time 
To set the music of a rhyme. 

IV. 

E'en as the princess slept of old, 

Unconscious of approaching bliss, 
While the years grew manifold 
Above her unawakening eyes ; 
So lay the stone 
By years, by drift o'ergrown, 
Unseen, unneeded, and unknown, 
Nor came the Blast with quickening kiss 
Its slumbers to dismiss. 
Darkly hidden 
Left unbidden 
To fill a measure 
For work or pleasure, 
Dull companioned by the dust and clay, 
Inert, unhonored there it lay 

Till came the need, the moment, and the man ; 
Then, earth's perfected plan 
Revealed to the expectant space 
The presence waiting for the waiting place 
Behold! the corner-stone, 
At once an altar and a throne ! 
Unto its hallowed ground 
Swing it with bruise nor wound. 



[16] 



[17] 



Steady! with tender care 
Place it witli praise and prayer, 
Fit for the proud estate, 
Noble and consecrate. 
Honor's true heir! 



Lowered is the corner stone, 

With psalm, and song, and festal flowers o'erstrown ! 

Above it here shall rise. 
Beneath our lucent Southern skies. 
Beside the shining city and the noble river, 

A fane whose light shall fall 

Beneficent on all ; 
A gift that glorifies the gainer and the giver. 

Here, Art and Science, hand in hand, 

Twin apostles of the True shall stand ; 
Entering at its welcoming door 
Shall Knowledge bring her proudest store. 

All the learning and the lore 

And wisdom known of yore 

Shall pace its floor- 
Here shall be the sages' home, 

Here shall Athens be, and Rome; 

Of the old all that was true, 

All the noblest of the new. 

All that has been here shall be 

Of promise and of prophecy. 

VI. 

Ah ! Egypt, look from 'neath thy dusky, level lids 

Upon thy haughty Pyramids ; 
While low, and ever lower surely sinks 
In drifting Nilean sands thy stony Sphinx — 

And Memnon's music done 

Greeteth no more the coming of the sun ! 



m 



To thee, to us, 
What now is ivory-towered Ephesus? 
Or Sidon's sculptured plains. 
Or Tadmor's classic fanes, 
Beside these fair, perpetual harvests growing 
From seed one good man's deed is ever sowing? 
Harvests to widen with the widening years 
Till they shall compass sphere and hemispheres, 
And to the lofty lead men nighest 

In age and youth, 
To find the holiest in the highest, 

The Beautiful in Truth ! 

Ah ! blest indeed is he, and truly great. 
Who finds in death nor in the grave his earthly fate. 
And o'er whose human name 
Is held the clasps of an immortal fame 
By people and by State ! 



The benediction was then pronounced by the Right Reverend 
Davis Sessums, Bishop of Louisiana. He prefaced the benediction 
with a prayer for the welfare of the university and the educational 
institutions of the State — that grace and wisdom might be given to 
the students, instructors and all officers and administrators of learning. 



[18] 



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